abomb&thecorpse: March 2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

Hell in a Handbasket | The Warlord Problem

By now quite a few people have seen the "Kony 2012" campaign, the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube meme by which Joseph Kony, war criminal and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army has been hefted into the internet limelight for the stated purpose of making him famous, to bring him to justice.

There are supporters and detractors on both sides of this issue. Much of the controversy revolves around the manipulative manner in which the subject is presented by the filmmakers, to elicit an emotional response rather than to offer good journalism.

To me, this is one of the most eloquent: Patrick Kigongo "Don't Reduce Uganda to a Meme." [good]

Mr. Kigongo writes with a healthy dose of skepticism (perhaps even resignation) that Mr. Kony's sudden noteriety will last within the Meme-Cycle to do more than scratch the surface of "American" apathy toward world events and injustices. I get the impression he feels Mr. Kony is littered across Facebook pages right now, but will quickly fall off the radar when the next 'cat-playing-saxifone' video hits the tubes.

He's probably quite right.

But the point is not that attention will shift from Mr. Kony to some other distraction, but that Mr. Kony, for a brief time, is in the consciousness of individuals previously unaware, and spoken of by individuals that perhaps didn't even know this sort of unacceptable behaviour still exists.

Though we may not agree on the method of delivery, I would like to think we can all agree that "this sort of thing" is unacceptable behaviour. Anywhere. By anyone.

A problem can only be solved by starting a discussion, and using this time to educate others as to what the problem is.

Because the problem is not Joseph Kony. We have to include practices in the DemRep Congo and other African nations, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other armed groups in the Phillipines, the... well, you get the idea... individuals within these and other groups are not necessarily even indicted by the International Criminal Court yet. But they should be. (Here's another GOOD article about who the "next 6 Konys" should be. [good])

And then, one by one, we should make a plan, if we are dedicated to avenging unacceptable behaviour in resolving conflict, to finding these individuals and bringing them to justice.

But before running off with righteousness we need to know what to do the day after that. The underlying problems that created the situation will still be there. What do we do to rehabilitate and re-introduce these children back into "normal" society?

And further questions of another line: is this our problem to solve, or are we over-simplifying the situation at the expense of African capability? The idea this may be little more than new round of "The White Man's Burden" has been circulating among the discussions.

The point of all this: take the controversial Kony 2012 video as the conversation-starter, and get into the conversation already under way. It's good to talk about things on a global basis, rather than regionalizing problems. But it's not like suddenly we know about this Joseph Kony guy, or that child-soldiers exist -- it's just that you do now. And that's a good thing. [UN]

Lucky B*shterd | Snow and Logging Truck

Sunday, March 11, 2012

pong'd | SimCity 5

EA and Maxis have announced SimCity 5 has been scheduled for a 2013 release. The SimCity series has been one of my all-time favourite simulation games. I've had many a thinkthoughtthunk while immersed in one iteration or another. And I started on the first release, back in 1989... great memories.

Here is a bit of discussion, with trailer at the beginning:

And here is the Trailer alone: